Vampire: Betrayal is Magic
by StabExplosion
Summary: Trouble is afoot in the city of Grimouth. Elysium has been called, and rumour has it that there's a justicar coming to town.
1. Chapter 1

"Olivia, Shen, please approach the front," the Prince called. Elysium that night was a black tie affair, even the sheriff donning a dinner jacket, albeit he wore it with a sword, and the prince's gown was a confection in pale purple, thousands of tiny pearls sewn into the sleeves

"What did you do?" Olivia hissed to Shen.

Shen returned her look, wide-eyed, adjusting his tie. "Nothing? I don't know."

Olivia looked sideways at Shen as they entered stage left. "Three months no Elysium, and now this? We're fucked, we're totally fucked."

Shen shrugged and straightened his lapel. "Well, nothing we can do about it now."

"-for their outstanding services to the city, in curing the plague and ridding us of a grave problem-" the Prince paused, leaning forward conspiratorially on her lectern. "- I am pleased to raise Olivia and Shen to the rank of ancillae." The prince mimed along as polite applause spread from the front of the crowd.

Shen and Olivia exchanged a look before they bowed.

"Well, that was better than expected." Back in the crowd, Olivia fiddled idly with her glasses, drink untouched. "I reckon Dante knew about this, for sure."

Shen snorted. "Of course he did, he's a primogen."

Olivia tapped the side of her glasses as she pushed her hair back from her face. Reflections flickered on her pupils as she replayed the stream of wellwishers. "I guess. You got anything more on this mystery elder?"

"Neah." Shen shook his head. "Lucius seemed pretty relaxed about it, though."

Olivia's gaze flicked to the Tremere primogen, resplendent in victorian dinner jacket and burgundy waistcoat. "One of your... daytime calls?"

Shen stiffened. He had volunteered to be bloodbound to the Grimouth chantry several months previously in exchange for their protection. "Those are only for important things."

"Sure they are, Shen."

There was a lull in the festivities as Dante ambled into the room. The malkavian primogen was tall and slender, with swept back red hair and a black and white suit like Twoface from the 90s batman cartoon. Olivia figured he was a fan.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the former Prince of Badger, Alaska - Jack." Dante gestured to the door.

The kindred's stench preceded him through the door. Fresh soil, dead animals, dried blood, fecal matter. Olivia snatched a softcloth from her bag and used it to cover her face as the former prince staggered through the door.

He stood at a little over six feet tall, even with his shoulders hunched, his hair matted down over the back of his neck, colour indistinguishable under the dirt and plant debris. He wore what had obviously once been a serviceable trenchcoat, now showing signs of extreme age- irreparably torn in odd places and covered with a patina of red-brown stains.

He inclined his head towards the prince, who stared at him like a child looks at freshly fallen snow, and, this genuflection completed, he pulled a half-eaten subway sandwich from the inner folds of his coat.

"He's not going… to eat that, is he?"

"It's just a sandwich, Olivia." Shen raised an eyebrow.

"That's a subway meatball marinara. And it's... over a week old." Olivia gagged.

Jack munched stoically as the prince spoke to him, her hand hovering a couple of inches from his arm as she guided him through the room.

"Hey, looks like she's bringing him over here," Shen glanced over his shoulder.

Olivia gave Shen a side-eye from over her cloth. "I know. I can tell. I can s_mell it,_ Shen."

Of more concern, however, was the movement of the malkavians. They had begun to congregate, talking to one another in groups of two or three even as the harpies made their first jokes at the former prince's expense. Olivia watched them carefully, a growing unease clawing its way up from the pit of her stomach.

"-like you to meet our newest Ancillae, Olivia and Shen. Olivia is the founder of Goodwin Industries, and maintains extensive grounds within the city."

Jack paused his eating, pocketing the remnants of the sandwich. "I don't need a place to sleep, if that's what you're asking. I sleep in the earth. It's useful if you move around as much as I do."

Shen rose from his seat, extending his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Jack."

"Likewise." They shook.

"Hey." Olivia inclined her head to Jack, still looking sidelong at the accumulating malks.

The Prince smiled broadly. "Well, I'm sure you all will be the best of friends," she said, taking a long draught from her glass before melding back into the crowd.

Shen blinked. "So, uh, you used to be a prince?"

"You could say that," Jack chuckled to himself. "It's a funny story, really. Some tradition said the Prince had to fight a guy, the prince didn't want to fight a guy, I was standing around at the time." He shrugged, spreading his hands. "The rest, as they say, is history."

Olivia tensed as she spotted the rest of the malkavians assemble. Dante was studiously facing the wrong direction, deep in conversation with the nosferatu primogen.

Jack wiped his hands on his coat. "How about you? A businesswoman, eh?"

Olivia's gaze flicked between Jack and the approaching malkavians. They had their hands behind their backs. "I'm sorry," she said. "I have to go." Grabbing her bag, Olivia hurried to the ladies toilet, and laughter rippled from the harpies' corner.

Jack stared after her. "Huh. What was her problem?"

Shen grimaced, finally noting the approaching malkavians. "Oh, that's just Olivia. You get used to it."

"She's pretty cute, though."

Shen grinned. "Thanks. My work. You like what I did with her cheekbones?"

The leader of the malks cleared his throat as they approached. Jack tilted his head.

Moving as one, each of the malks whipped a party popper from behind their back and unloaded it at Jack.

Jack, unimpressed, brushed bright paper animal confetti from his shoulders.


	2. Chapter 2

Olivia climbed out of the window to escape the stink of Jack and the threat of being pranked by the malks, and walked around the side of theatre, her footsteps soft. The exterior of the Swan theatre was grubby and overgrown, ground littered with broken glass and cigarette butts.

Samuel, the gangrel primogen, stood with Dante at the door. He wore neatly pressed dress trousers and a dinner jacket that looked as if had been worn less than three times.

"If he would just leave," Samuel glanced at his watch. "I don't suppose you could-"

Dante smirked, eyes dancing. "We are _civilised_ here in Grimouth, Samuel. One does not simply _make someone leave_ Elysium. That would be crass. And _someone_ would notice."

Samuel folded his arms. "The prince is plastered. I doubt she'd notice if the place came down around her ears."

Dante gave a low laugh, shaking his head. "I wasn't talking about the prince."

"I know." Samuel gave a small smile. "Are you saying the prince is irrelevant?"

Dante looked coy. "Samuel! I would never say such a thing! Why would you _say_ I would say such a thing?"

Dante frowned and looked up as Olivia approached the front door. "Oh, hello Olivia. Any particular reason you're entering Elysium twice tonight?"

Olivia stuck her hands in her pockets. "Feeling a bit closed in. Needed some air." She looked to Samuel, who smiled and inclined his head. "You need Jack to leave?"

Dante seemed to mull this over. "It would be for the best, yes. Samuel here is loathe to carry out his primogenly duties." Samuel looked a little troubled, but did not contradict the malk.

Olivia shrugged. "I'll see what I can do."

The party was in full swing as Olivia returned to find Jack still cornering Shen, pontificating at length on the merits of dumpster diving.

Shen caught her eye and looked reproachful. "Where were you?"

"I needed some air." Olivia looked to Jack. "We're leaving next. Want to come with?"

"Uh, sure." Jack scratched his chin. "Just let me talk to my primogen first."

After a cursory scan of the room, Jack ambled in the direction of the largest group of gangrel, and began to introduce himself to the most smartly dressed.

Shen looked sideways at Olivia. "You going to let him do that?"

"Mhm." Olivia sucked her cheeks. "Samuel didn't want to talk to him. Some political thing. Now hush, I'm listening."

Shen sighed. "Poor guy, he doesn't even have a haven."

Olivia closed her eyes and focused, blocking out the noise of the party and Jack's blundering formal introduction to Joshua the ancilla, the prince's breathless laughter into the shoulder of the Ventrue primogen. One single salient set of sensory input emerged; quiet, deliberate footsteps and the faint smell of soap and garlic.

Olivia opened her eyes. "Hello Cain."

"Hello Olivia." The Nosferatu primogen and keeper of Elysium stood a little taller than Shen. He wore a well-cut black suit, inoffensively expensive, his gnarled hands clasped at his midriff. When Olivia had first met him, she had wondered if he had bought a costume from a hammer horror era movie, so extreme was his deformity. But there was no smell of latex here, no artist's putty. There was simply Cain. From the corners of his eyelids to his jowls, it seemed as if his pale flesh had melted and flowed, folding in upon itself, and his ears were long and tapered, protruding from the sides of his head.

"Your new friend will need a phone," said Cain. He meant more than just a phone, of course. Kindred working for the Grimouth court were often provided with encrypted technology for communicating with their superiors. It also provided ample opportunity for Cain's clan to listen in.

"We're friends already, huh." Olivia sniffed.

"So I am reliably informed," said Cain. "Besides which, your coterie is down a member."

Olivia's shoulders fell a little. "You want to send it to Goodwin Tower? You could track down whatever park Jack's going to be sleeping in."

"If I send it to Goodwin, I have another pair of eyes watching the streets," said Cain. "And given the circumstances..."

"Yeah, okay, I'll take him the phone." For the last few months, Grimouth had suffered an influx of new kindred from other parts of the country, and Olivia knew the primogens' resources would be stretched thin.

"Thank you Olivia." Cain seemed pleased with her answer.

...

"So, what now?" Jack ambled cheerfully alongside Olivia and Shen as they made their exit. Samuel, still near the door, looked relieved.

"We were going back to Goodwin to play Call of Duty with some of the guys," said Olivia. "You're welcome to come if you like."

"Call of Duty?" Jack looked puzzled.

"It's a game where you shoot people."

Jack scratched the back of his neck. "Ah. Not really my thing."

"Just as well," said Shen. "Olivia cheats."

"Says Mr celerity over there," said Olivia.

Jack shook his head. "You know, I really wanted to hunt tonight. You guys know any good spots?"

Shen and Olivia looked at each other, and Olivia cleared her throat. "Ah, hunting? We don't really…"

Shen looked thoughtful. "One of our old coterie used to hunt in a park pretty near here. I could show you that, if you want."

Jack brightened visibly. "A park? Cool."


	3. Chapter 3

_Dark ichor flows up from the sea into the river Grim, on the surface and in the water's depths. It flows against the river, and up the river, to the heart of the city, where it rises and then rains down, coating the city in black._


	4. Chapter 4

Olivia stared suspiciously at the pub on the waterfront. "You're sure this is the one?" They had arranged to meet Jack the previous night, and this pub only barely matched the description he had given them. How long had Jack been away, Olivia wondered, for things to change so much?

Shen nodded, "He said he knew the landlord." His two mastiff puppies, Salt and Pepper, pulled at their leashes in front of him, wagging their tails, and he leaned down, speaking softly to each of them. "Calm down, you'll see him soon."

"See who soon?" Olivia frowned.

"Ah, I invited Harvey along too," Shen confessed. "We don't hang out enough."

Olivia pursed her lips. "Are you sure he's… safe? You know, with the whole…" Olivia trailed off, gesturing to her right arm. A few months previously, Harvey had contracted a curse from an ancient tomb, and he had spent much of the intervening time in quarantine in the tremere chantry.

"Lucius says he's safe, that's good enough for me."

"Sure, if _Lucius_ says he's safe." Olivia rolled her eyes.

"He is the authority on that kind of thing, you know," said Shen, a little testily.

"Forgive me if I don't trust you to be impartial about him."

From the front of the pub, they could make out Jack's massive form at the bar. He was hunched over a pint, his coat dripping onto the floor beneath him. The smell of river water filled the room, and Olivia fought back the crawling sensation in her stomach, clutching her head as she backed out from the room, the shadows obscuring her peripheral vision.

"... Shen?" Olivia's struggle against her beast gave out as Shen clapped a hand over her mouth and bore her to the ground.

...

"I'm ok, I'm ok." Olivia spat dirt. "I'm ok now, I promise. Just… tell the dogs to get off me, please."

Shen was sat cross-legged on her back, pinning her to the ground. "You just spent the last ten minutes trying to bite me. You're not ok."

Olivia paused, tense. "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Neah, I'm fine. Got you outnumbered." Shen laughed, scratching Pepper behind the ears. "Ok, I guess you're done now."

Olivia felt a lightness in her chest as Shen took his weight off her back and helped her up, brushing the worst of the dirt off her.

"There. You're clean."

Olivia pulled a disinfectant wipe from her bag and began to scrub her face. "I've still got dog on me."

"So what set you off this time?"

"Jack smelled like the river," Olivia gave a small shudder. "I had a dream today, the river was a horrible blackness, consuming the city." She scowled in Jack's direction.

"Dante say anything about it?"

"Said it was probably nothing." Olivia shook her head, looking mournfully at her broken glasses before pulling a new pair from her bag. "I don't know if I believe that."

"Well, he'd know more than I do," said Shen. "You ready to try this again?"

Olivia looked deflated. "Yeah, I should be ok. Just let me go to the ladies room and clean myself up."

Jack waved Shen over to the bar where he sat with Harvey as he stepped inside. "You guys ok? I saw Olivia had a… fall."

Shen shook his head, letting Salt and Pepper say hello to the former ghoul, who looked well enough, apart from the black leather gloves that now covered his hands . "She said you smelled like the river."

"That set her off?" Jack looked uncomfortable. "I just figured I'd smell less after a swim."

Harvey leaned over to Shen, his voice low. "Don't look now, but there are two guys in here who've been watching us all evening."

It was true enough. Olivia would have felt more comfortable within her invisibility were it not for the middle-aged man with a flatcap and a newspaper studiously avoiding looking at her. The other watcher, a young man with vividly blue hair, showed up on her glasses as being dead for eight years but made a gallant show of drinking his drink. She was pretty sure there was a nos in here too, possibly the landlord.

Shen nodded. "Ok. Let's see if they're following us. Jack and I will leave the bar with Salt and Pepper, you can send us a message if you see either of them leave."

The plan agreed, Shen handed Salt's leash to Jack, who seemed quite taken with the puppy, and the two left the bar together. The blue-haired man stared after them as they left, seeming thoughtful, and then wordlessly rose to his feet, leaving a half-finished drink at his table. He brushed past Olivia as he left, and he smelled like a kindred, faintly of alcohol and dirt.

"Well, that's our answer I guess," Harvey pulled out his phone and began to message Shen, cursing as his touchscreen struggled to register his gloved fingers. The Curse had left its mark on him, when he had killed its previous bearer, blackening his hand in a skeletal pattern and etching a coiling serpent onto his arm and shoulder. "Oh, hello Olivia. I, uh, didn't see you there."

Olivia shrugged, plucking a frame with a good image of the blue-haired kindred from her glasses and sending it to Dante's number. _One of yours?_ "That's ok. How's freedom?"

"It's alright, I guess. Getting my bearings still," Harvey ran his thumb over his chin. "Business is pretty good."

"Still working the rental stuff, then?"

Harvey's eyes flashed with something, maybe anger. "Yeah," he said. "Something like that."

Olivia looked over her shoulder to find the man with the newspaper staring intently at her. She frowned, and he flipped his phone open and closed again, long enough for Olivia to pick out the number on the screen. Dante.

_No. Hangs out at the Double Locks, meets other kindred. _

"How're the others getting on?"

Harvey checked his phone. "Shen says the guy followed them. Made some kind of threat. I'm going to go meet up."

Olivia nodded. "I'll follow you."

Harvey nodded to the bartender and headed out.

It took a moment for Olivia to slip into the blind spot again. It was a strange sensation, like stepping into an oily space that coated the skin and prickled at the corners of the mind. Dante, perhaps in jest, had called it a glareous humour. Olivia sighed as she felt the bartender's gaze slide over her, and stepped outside after Harvey.


	5. Chapter 5

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Harvey cut a lonely figure in the streetlights by the waterfront, his long coat pulled tight against the cold as he walked. Olivia heard the river's flow as a dull roar, punctuated by the high staccato of bats as they hunted for insects and the low murmur of conversation from the pub. Harvey's heartbeat was audible, too, oddly slow, but strong and distinct.  
There was something else, too. Olivia paused, concentrating. There was something moving through the treeline, too big to be an animal./p 


	6. Chapter 6

_She was lower now, could see more. The city of Grimouth was reflected in the water of the ocean, and the blackness rose from it like millions of flies, coursing up the river Grim and into the city on the surface. The rain was black again._


	7. Chapter 7

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Olivia sat back in the couch in Dante's office, the green leather more comfortable than it had any right to be. Closing her eyes, she fought back the whispering panic that had become so familiar in the months since her /em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Don't look into his eyes, he'll mesmerise you, he'll bend you to his will./embr /She caught a flash of him standing over her, his careful mask broken, his fangs /em style="border: none;  
color: inherit;"No!/em/p 


	8. Chapter 8

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"There was, Olivia considered, nothing in the world quite like the taste of someone who wanted you. Fear made the blood bittersweet and thick as butterscotch, greed made it sour and anger curdled it. Desire, though, not merely a sense of physical need but an intellectual hope, a sense of connection… that made it taste white-hot, almost good enough to hurt, a feeling that prickled at the back of the throat and filled the heart. Warm and languid,  
Olivia thumbed through her phone, the mortal's scent still on her hands. What had her name been? Ah. With a motion she wiped the contact details. You could never be too safe./p 


	9. Chapter 9

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The Justicar stood just over six feet tall,  
his face obscured by an enamel mask, a mane of brown hair protruding from its back, and he strode wordlessly towards the prince, two attendants lumbering after /The first attendant was a man of over seven feet in height, breathing, and covered from shoulder to knee with bandoliers holding bladed weapons, more equipment than someone with mortal strength could carry. They clicked in a syncopated rhythm as he /The second attendant was stranger still, a little shorter than the Justicar, with greyish skin and what at a distance could have been mistaken for a hunchback,  
but which in this context was clearly a pair of powerfully muscular fleshy wings from a hole in the back of his waistcoat, and a pair of coarse, bony horns protruded from his bare /Olivia might have wondered what kind of creature he was, had she not met a Gargoyle previously, on the night of Shen's initiation into the Chantry./p 


	10. Chapter 10

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"In retrospect, the four-inch heels had been a mistake. Olivia crouched down and took off her shoes, the wet cobbles of the quay cold against her stockinged /Jack watched. In the days since Harvey's death, he had agreed to take a shower, but refused to change his coat. It was an improvement, albeit a small one. Jed was perched atop a nearby wall, his wings outstretched, shielding himself from the drizzle. If you got over how oddly shaped he was, Olivia mused, he was actually pretty /"He's still in there?"br /Jack nodded. "He was talking with an albino lady. Something about Victor. Some kind of necromancy contract, I don't know. I didn't catch the whole thing."br /Shen froze at the mention of his sire. "Victor?"br /Jack tilted his head. "Guy you know?"br /"You could say that." said /"My sire." Shen clarified. "Oh, this is bad."br /Olivia looked over to the pub. "It's nearly closing time.  
He'll have to leave, and we can track him back to his nest."br /"You reckon you can follow him?" Jed shifted on his /Olivia shook her head. "He can see through my veil, and he's faster than I am. If we could plant a tracking device on him without him noticing, then maybe."br /"Hounds,  
then," said Shen, digging in his pocket for his phone. "We can follow his trail from a distance."br /Jed flipped his wings. "I can follow him from the sky."br /Olivia nodded grimly. "Alright then. Let's go."/p 


	11. Chapter 11

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Almost unbearably loud to Olivia, the sound of the rain on the penthouse roof had an oddly soothing quality./p 


	12. Chapter 12

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""Alistair said he would deal with it tonight." Perched on the railings next to the helipad on the roof of Goodwin tower the following night, Jed looked uneasy. Perhaps it was the squad of armoured ghouls who lounged nearby, tacitly ignoring his presence. Shen leaned against the railings, his perfect black hair flowing in the wind, and Jack picked his teeth with his /"You're not going with your master?" Olivia asked. She had little desire to butt heads with Victor's personal army, but she had imagined that the justicar would have taken his winged assistant with /Jed prickled. "He's not my em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"master/em. I am not a slave."br /Olivia laughed. "What then? Leader? Chief? Employer? Boss?"br /"Justicar. But boss works too," Jed /"Ok,  
then. You're not going with your em style="border:  
none; color: inherit;"boss/em."br /"That's right," said Jed. "He told me to watch over the city."/p 


	13. Chapter 13

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"That night they hunted kindred./p 


	14. Chapter 14

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""Prep the jet to go." Olivia snapped the order into the phone, feeling cold to the /"Ma'am?"  
The pilot's line crackled as Olivia drove round a corner, knuckles white around the steering wheel. "Where to ma'am?"br /"My island," said Olivia. "Prep for guests, too. I don't know how many."br /There was a pause as her pilot registered this.  
"Ma'am."br /Olivia disconnected with a swipe of her thumb. The em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"fuck/em was she going to let Dante make her do his dirty work. She couldn't fight him, but she could obstruct him, she could at least save whoever he was sending her to kill, send them out of his reach./p 


	15. Chapter 15

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Morning's first gray fingers brushed the horizon as Jed landed outside the entrance to the underworld, near Grimouth's public library, visions of the Setites still swimming in his /He had been surprised that the nosferatu primogen had agreed to meet him so near to dawn, but he supposed it was in deference to his rank as an Archon. Smoke rose from his wings as he ducked into the entranceway. The architecture was old, probably dating back to the priory that had existed around Grimouth cathedral,  
local /Cain met him inside. The man was civilised, and clean, unusual for one of the nosferatu, his shirt and slacks neatly /"Jedivan," Cain bowed politely.  
"Welcome to the underworld."br /Jed returned the bow, his wings tilting. "Thank you for having me at such an... early hour."br /The nosferatu primogen smiled, leading Jed down a set of stairs. "Not a problem. I keep odd hours down here.  
Sometimes I lose track of time down here myself."/p 


	16. Chapter 16

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""You did em style="border:  
none; color: inherit;"what/em?" Olivia felt her anger as a tightness in her chest, the Beast pushing, an insistent pressure from behind her eyes. The door behind her rattled in its frame, and a couple of security ghouls edged into the room, moving to stand behind /Jack stood over the unconscious oracle's gurney in Goodwin tower's reception area, his mouth and arm bloody.  
"I just gave her my vitae, I don't see the problem here," he complained. "She was running low."br /Olivia caught Shen's eye, but the doctor's expression was carefully neutral.  
Her voice was hard as she issued the order to the guards. "Take her downstairs to the Vault."br /"Ah, safe downstairs? Good plan. I'll go with her, to watch over her." Jack smiled /"No." Olivia moved between Jack and the girl, staring the huge kindred down. "I'm not letting you into my haven."br /Jack made as if to protest, but his eyes flicked to the half dozen guards that had moved to flank her, and he stepped back, /Olivia nodded to the guards as they escorted the gurney /Jack sniffed. "You could've told me you wanted her."br /"You can let yourself out."  
Olivia followed the guards through the door, and it hissed shut behind them./p 


	17. Chapter 17

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JED/p 


	18. Chapter 18

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Other Olivia buttoned her shirt as Olivia composed herself, willing her Beast to stop rising up in her throat.  
She shook her head, hoping that Dante knew what he was doing. Still,  
that phrase, em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"if I die tonight/em, the very thought was horrible. The possibility of ending up with a malk who was years if not centuries Dante's junior in his black-and-white shoes filled her with /She smiled to other Olivia as the girl finished brushing out her /"How'd I look?"br /"Bit like this." Grinning, other Olivia mirrored her /Olivia felt herself smirk and shooed her twin away./p 


	19. Chapter 19

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"Little birdie flew away. Must've heard us talking./em/p 


	20. Chapter 20

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""Hey, I said you could take the dogs. I did not agree to sit in the back with the dogs." Olivia clambered into the front of the van, wrinkling her nose. "God, it smells like one of my mum's cars." She looked over her shoulder at Shen.  
"That was em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"not/em a compliment, by the way."br /"I'd gathered that." Shen replied, scratching Pepper behind the ears. "Don't worry boy, she doesn't mean it."br /"I totally mean it," said Olivia. "I absolutely do."br /The two Ravnos, Tony and Clive, climbed in the back behind Shen,  
as wary of Salt and Pepper as the puppies were of them, followed by a couple of ghouls from Goodwin's security corps, carrying the reinforced box with the gift inside. John observed their van as it pulled away, his eyes devoid of expression. He had worked in the Syndicate base in Thornwood, before Olivia had destroyed it and captured him. She wondered if he missed his old life, missed the free reign the Syndicate had given him over his work. She met his eyes and he stared back, impassive./p 


	21. Chapter 21

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Thornwood was a community perhaps two or three hundred strong, mostly one-storey prefab wooden buildings. A hotel, wooden and windowless, loomed over the structures around it,  
and the van pulled into its modest /The Anarch community's three leaders were waiting for them in the pub, and Tom, the bearded brujah, raised his hand to Shen and Olivia as they /"Good to see you guys again. And your…  
friends." The kindred nodded to Tony and Clive. "Dick, can you show our new citizens their quarters?"br /With a reserved smile to Olivia, the massive mute kindred guided the Ravnos pair away. Olivia took a seat at Tom's table as Shen went to the bar for blood. As backwards and insular as Thornwood was, there was something oddly freeing about the lack of masquerade. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"You still can't drink the blood. You don't know who might have tampered with it/em. Olivia shut out the intrusive thoughts, rubbing her /"Long drive?" Tom's tone was /"A little," she admitted. "When did you guys start getting em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"werewolves/em guarding the roads?"br /Tom and Harry exchanged a look. "Too late is when," said /Harry nodded. "Turned up after we'd finished clearing the Beasts-that-Stare from the forest. Would've been useful for that job, but no."br /Shen set a pint glass full of blood down on the table and pulled up a chair, Salt and Pepper sitting quietly at his feet, unfazed by the other vampires. "You had any more attacks?"br /"Not since Samuel and Olivia dealt with the base," answered Tom. "Their population levels are back to normal now. Plus, the weres are keeping them quiet."br /"We'd like to stay here for today," said Shen. "I'd like to check on all the previous victims. And the children."br /"Of course." Harry looked a little troubled at the mention of the children, Olivia thought. It didn't take a genius to figure out why. The Syndicate, John's group, had been using young teenagers as incubators for the spirit creatures known as the Beasts-that-Stare, a process which seemed to strip the higher mental faculties from the victim in exchange for a new Beast. Or was it soul? She had never quite been able to determine the difference between the two; perhaps they were simply different words for the same /"Are they any better?" She asked the question, knowing that it was an empty /"The weres claim to have sent for some sort of spirit healer for them," said Tom, sounding a little bitter. "The parents are pretty desperate,  
they'll clutch at any straws they're given."br /Shen looked interested. "You know how they're planning to do it?"br /"Fuck knows. Were magic." Tom took a draught from his own glass of /Olivia looked to Shen. "We could ask them."/p 


	22. Chapter 22

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JED/p 


	23. Chapter 23

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The werewolf elder was a tall man, in his mid fifties, wearing a heavy waterproof coat and emanating an almost palpable aura of power, perpetual rage seething just below the /Olivia swallowed, pushing her fear down deep. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"He's not going to just arbitrarily kill us. He's not going to just arbitrarily kill us./embr /He looked at Shen and Olivia in turn,  
listening to his /"Greetings to you…  
kindred."br /"Good evening." Shen smiled. "You've heard our request, for spiritual assistance?"br /The werewolf tilted his head. "This is not an easy thing you ask, to speak with the spirits of the land. And the price might be higher than you're prepared to pay."br /"What's your price?"br /The elder turned to Olivia. "You have a company in the city, I believe."br /"I do." Olivia /"My people are seeking to re-establish themselves in Devon," said the elder. "We need a foothold in the city, and we understand that you are recruiting indiscriminately. If you could see to it that candidates we sent to you were suitably placed, this could act as some measure of goodwill."br /Shen looked to Olivia. "You ok with this?"br /em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Not like the tower wouldn't be full of spies anyway./em Olivia nodded.  
"Sounds reasonable."br /She registered surprise on the elder's face. "Well then," he said. "It sounds like we have a deal."/p 


	24. Chapter 24

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"Some kind of bad juju. Setites are up to something,  
but they chased me off./em/p 


	25. Chapter 25

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Dante's compound was what had once been Devon's foremost psychiatric facility. A madhouse, in other words.  
Olivia was unsure if he had bought it out of nostalgia or a wicked sense of irony. What was more sure was the brutal practicality of such an arrangement. High walls, guard towers, windowless rooms, all par for the /She took the other Olivia with her that night when she went to visit Dante, the sight of her strangely comforting. The ghouls at the gate of Dante's compound didn't blink an eye at her twin, but waved her car through, the gate sliding closed behind /There was a sense of creeping dissonance, Olivia felt, like the madness was closer to the surface than usual. The lights in the malkavian clubhouse were out, too, the only people about were Dante's guards and retainers./p 


	26. Chapter 26

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JED/p 


	27. Chapter 27

p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333;  
font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px;  
line-height: 24px;"emThe fire is crackling,  
all-consuming, overwhelming. It is the heat in the back of the mind,  
it is the heat on the back of the eyes./em/p 


	28. Chapter 28

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"I'm coming over. This is important./em/p 


	29. Chapter 29

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The resulting crater was a wound in the earth, and it burned, black smoke pouring off /"Ok,  
so who's not rotschreking right now?" she called over the /"I'm good," called /"Yo,"  
said /"And Jed?"br /"Can't see him,"  
Jack replied. "Probably flew off screaming."br /"Eh,  
he'll be back, I guess." Olivia licked the blood from her fingers. "Can we get near?"br /"Not with that much fire coming off it," said Jack, his signal crackling as he edged around the /Switching cameras to the one mounted on Jack, she could make out the pit better, the lip still glowing red hot. "Well,  
if Balrus is down there, we want to get down too. Search the area,  
look for alternate routes down. There must be an access point here somewhere." She paused. "And someone get Alice down here. I could do with some guidance."/p 


	30. Chapter 30

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"strong style="color:  
#000000;"Balrus:/strong If I don't return,  
they're doing the carrion snake ritual. If I go in there, and die,  
it sets them back a few months, maybe even to the start./p 


	31. Chapter 31

_Men fight the great serpent. They fight it with swords, with axes, with spears, with knives, with bows and with guns, and they fight it in vain; each wound sloughs away leaving clean new flesh beneath. But the serpent is tethered to the earth by a single silver cord, and when the cord is cut, the serpent flees._


	32. Chapter 32

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"In the aftermath, a chartered flight arrived from Rome, and the killings started, the truce broken./p 


	33. Chapter 33

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""That's not Balrus," said Shen, as he walked forward, looking over the /"No?" Olivia's head /Shen nodded. "Surgical copy," he said,  
reaching up and pulling back the collar of the corpse's shirt.  
"Look, he's got scars from the incisions." He gave a low whistle. "Whoever did this was good, as good as me maybe."br /Olivia stepped up, peering around Shen's shoulder. The man on the cross wasn't Balrus, though if she hadn't known Balrus well,  
she might have been fooled. There was no aura of faith on the body,  
only the pale aura of kindred, and the silver stakes in the bandolier at his waist lacked the wooden core needed to be effective. Behind him and around him on the cross, there were names written in red. The nosferatu ancilla had taken out a notepad and was frantically writing; Olivia recognized some of the names as those of the newly arrived vampire hunters. She sighed, her shoulders falling. "Poor guy," she said. "Maybe we should get him inside before anyone sees him."br /"And then I can do an autopsy," said Shen cheerfully, pulling the nail from the corpse's right hand./p 


	34. Chapter 34

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""What happened?" asked Olivia as the crowd began to peel off, the struggling gargoyle no longer a /Shen shrugged. "Dunno. Guy was just talking to the sheriff, and then - Bam! Frenzy. Something set him off,  
maybe."br /"Maybe." Olivia leaned back on the bar,  
watching as Jed's screams subsided to a low whimper as the gargoyle's frenzy ended. Isaac released his hold, brushing the ash from his hands on his long coat, and the gargoyle scrambled to his feet, apologising profusely. Isaac didn't give any reply, but simply stared at him coldly until he left./p 


	35. Chapter 35

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"When Olivia got back to Goodwin Tower, her promised guest was waiting. The spy introduced herself as Anne Finch,  
and took a job at the front desk. She also passed over a summons from her master; to Grimouth central park that night, the more the merrier./p 


	36. Chapter 36

p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #333333;  
font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif; font-size: 16px;  
line-height: 24px;"em style="background-color:  
transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align:  
baseline;"She ran through the darkness, black as pitch,  
accompanied by the howling of wolves./em/p 


	37. Chapter 37

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Waiting for Shen in a comfortable corner of the Tremere guest library, Olivia finished compiling her database of fresh Grimouth faces against the names from the cross; the full manifest of the plane that had arrived from Rome, a photograph for each one. She forwarded a copy to Goodwin's security staff, and,  
after a moment's thought, a copy to Cain, /He called her within moments. "Olivia?"br /em style="border:  
none; color: inherit;"Who calls in response to getting sent a report?/em Olivia blinked. "Speaking. Hey Cain."br /"Thank you for the document. The photographs are appreciated."  
His voice was gentle. "Was there anything you wanted in return?"br /"No, I, uh-" Olivia hesitated, feeling a little lost. Why was he assuming that she wanted something from him? "I just figured it was the kind of thing that's more helpful right now, not rotting on a hard drive somewhere. I don't really need to know anything right now. Sorry."br /Cain made a noise on the other end of the line, clearing his throat, or perhaps laughter. "Well, I'm glad someone appreciates the value of having the nosferatu on their side. I'll keep track of that for later."br /"Um,  
sure," said Olivia, still feeling utterly bemused as the call cut /She sighed, starting her filter of obituaries and coroner's inquests for the last fifty years. This would be a much easier task if the official data included possible incidents of ghost activities, but it provided a starting point at least./p 


	38. Chapter 38

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""Thank you," Olivia inclined her head to the gangrel. "And my thanks to Samuel,"br /The kindred nodded, scrambling back out the /"Get the perimeter guards back in the tower. High alert, prepare the vault for lockdown," Olivia turned to Shen. "Do you know what werewolves eat?"br /Shen looked thoughtful. "Organic food?"br /"Great. Help the kitchens to organize some kind of buffet.  
They'll be hungry if they've just run up from Darkmoor." Olivia sighed. "I suppose it's a bit late to be thinking about bunting."em style="border: none; color: inherit;" And hopefully they're not coming here to kill us,/em she thought, remembering the howls from her dream./p 


	39. Chapter 39

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"In the compound, Eyes had shown him the torpid form of his Justicar, Alistair Nix. And she had given him a choice./p 


	40. Chapter 40

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Still bleeding, he returned to the place where Olivia had housed him; a small house in a suburban neighbourhood, and slipped in through the top floor window. Grabbing a towel to stem the blood, and brushing cobwebs out of the way, he headed downstairs./p 


	41. Chapter 41

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jed came round to the sound of Jack pounding on the glass of his sitting room window, a black void where the memory of his frenzy should be. He shivered, getting uneasily to his feet. His neck hurt. And the cobwebs were back, their spiders with them, like he had never cleaned at all. Reaching into his pocket for his key, Jed went and got the door for Jack./p 


	42. Chapter 42

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"One of the other tremere had patched up the hole in his chest with mud, and given him a perscription to see Dante. It hadn't struck Jed as the best idea, but on the other hand, perhaps his fear of the malkavian primogen was simply an aspect of the mental illness that the tremere claimed afflicted him./p 


	43. Chapter 43

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""Olivia," Charles, Goodwin's finance director and ghoul, cornered her in his upstairs office. He was a tall, broad man with receding silver hair and glasses that were too small for his face. "You can't keep blowing cash like this.  
Midnight feasts, that stunt with the dry ice the other night; that stuff shows up. I have to show that to theem style="border:  
none; color: inherit;" auditors/em." He sighed. "I know you've got the capital to keep us running at a loss indefinitely, but we do have an image to maintain."br /"I know. That's why Shen recruited you." Olivia sighed, sitting down at his desk. "What do you need from me?"br /Charles pulled a small bottle of scotch and a tumbler from his desk, pouring himself a shot. "Was hoping you would ask me that. I've had some thoughts."/p 


	44. Chapter 44

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""So, he says that he was just trying to rescue his boss!" Shen clicked his tongue. "Poor guy. He must've been pretty messed up in the head, to need to send him to Dante."  
He paused. "No offense, Olivia."br /Olivia shook her head. "None taken."br /They were walking from the car;  
one of Goodwin's less conspicuous, to the event, an informal Elysium. Shen wore a shirt without a tie with his suit trousers and Olivia a comfortable jumper and jeans. The venue was a small private club on the west side of the city, and most of the other attendees looked to be ancillae or above. Olivia noticed the Prince enter with a pair of other /"So why do you reckon they called this?" asked /"Don't know. Harpies gonna harp I guess." Olivia sighed, pushing the door open./p 


	45. Chapter 45

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jack walked the streets by the side of the werewolf lord. Joshua was pretty chill for a lupine, all things considered, particularly considering it was a full moon. He didn't even call anyone a leech. A proper gentleman, Jack decided, insofar as a were could be a gentleman./p 


	46. Chapter 46

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color:  
inherit;"A hotel room. Something about a hotel room./em/p 


	47. Chapter 47

p style="font-size: 16px;  
margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Shen tucked the wine bottle of blood under his arm as he stepped out into the rain. It was heavy, unnaturally so. It soaked the streets, running a river on the sides of the road,  
black and cold and quick; miniature Grims. Lightning struck a nearby building, and then again, and Shen felt the thunder in his bones.  
Victor's storm./p 


	48. Chapter 48

p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color: inherit;"If I've got nothing to offer to Victor, then why did Eyes send me there?/em Olivia closed her eyes as she walked beside Shen, the deluge of rain pouring from the edges of his large black style="border: none; color: inherit;" She must know I can't beat him in a fight. And I have nothing of value to offer, nothing tantamount to Balrus' life, and she doesn't seem the type to do something like that in return for a bit of coding. Unless-/em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Olivia stopped dead on the pavement, and Shen looked at her curiously./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Dante's favour. She wants me to drag him into this too./em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""Come on, Olivia, let's head back to base," Shen's voice was brusque as it cut through her thoughts. "My feet are soaking," he /"Yeah," said Olivia. "Mine too." She shook her head. "But I need to see Dante before I go home."br /"Dante? Why?" asked /"I need to ask him something." Olivia narrowed her eyes. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"I need to absolve him of his debt before Eyes forces me to use it against him. I know I shouldn't go into a deal in bad faith, but that seems like exactly what Eyes has done./em "Don't ask what."br /Shen frowned. "Okay," he said. "But I'm not leaving you out in the streets with no protection, particularly with all the thinbloods about."br /"Call some of my guys, then," said Olivia. "Not the kinfolk, em style="border: none; color: inherit;"mine/em."br /Shen held the umbrella over her as she climbed into her car and shut the door behind her. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"He probably thinks I'm being irrational again,/em thought Olivia, with a pang of regret. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"But I can't tell him what I'm planning. He can't lie for shit./em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Shen waited for the ghouls to arrive and then left in his own car, looking a little frustrated. Olivia tried Dante's number twice; once from a payphone and once from one of her own mobiles. Both times the number rang out, unanswered./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"And then, a text./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Can't talk right now. In a meeting./em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Later, then. Olivia sighed. She didn't dare return to Goodwin in case Ann decided to strongarm her immediately into a meeting with Eyes. The two ghouls that Shen had sent to join her looked at each other warily as she ordered them into radio silence, and then to drive to the docks./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The rain was still torrential as they parked up, but the intensity of the storm had lessened a little. There were a number of warehouses she had bought in the prelude to the raid on the KT distribution center, and some of them she had converted into safehouses. Not particularly safe, persay, but safe enough to go to ground for a night, if no-one knew where you were. Olivia punched the sixteen-digit code into the keypad on the side-door as one of her ghouls held an umbrella over her and the three of them slipped inside./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"One of her guards went to switch on the lights, but Olivia gestured no, her eyes taking a moment to adjust to the gloom of the emergency exit lighting. The place had been a clubhouse for the ghouls, before the building of Goodwin tower, and aspects of this remained; several armchairs stacked against the wall, a bar stocked with quarter-full bottles of colourful liquor, the spaces where a plasma-screen television and a pool table had been. Taking this in, and noting the dusty, undisturbed state, Olivia led her guards down to the basement level. There were workbenches there, various pieces of decommissioned machinery covered in pallet wrap, and perhaps more importantly, a door with a decent lock./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Olivia shut the door behind them, and climbed down the metal stairs. She found a square of the concrete floor that was unoccupied, and sat there. Rainwater dripped from her clothes and hair, darkening the floor around her, and she found that she was shaking./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"She felt the music through the floor before she heard it, a thick, massive sound, the bass reverberating as Victor's storm cleared, the higher frequency guitar distortion less apparent through her ass, but no less audible. It was loud, and it was coming from extremely nearby./p 


	49. Chapter 49

p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JACK/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jack's phone rumbled in his pocket as he dug it out, the cut of his jacket unfamiliar. It felt too smooth, somehow, too clean, and he fought the urge to rip it off and rub dirt into it. "Hey," he held the phone to his ear. "Jack here."br /"Olivia," the caller replied. Her voice was full of static; somewhere with bad /"Olivia!" Jack grinned. "What can I do for you?"br /"There is-" Olivia coughed. "One of my contacts says that there's a disturbance near the homeless shelter. Can you check it out for me?"br /Jack scratched his chin, a primal, territorial feeling swimming somewhere in his gut. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Mine/em. "Yeah," he said. "Sure thing. I'm not far."/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jack poked his head out from under the bus shelter, where Jed was perched, somewhere between bedraggled and majestic, his clothes sodden and ragged as he played absently with the cheap mobile phone that Jack had procured for him. "You hear that, buddy?"br /The gargoyle opened one eye, and nodded. "Yeah," he said. "Let's go."/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JED/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jed flew through the remnants of the dying storm. It was strange, and freeing, to leave the shackles of his former life; to fly free, with only his sword and the rags on his style="border: none; color: inherit;" And the leash around my neck./em His wingbeat faltered as he thought of Dante, the tall malkavian's hand on his shoulder, the instinctive, almost pleasurable slip into subservience to his will. Serve the ruling powers of Grimouth indeed. As if he would long remain the plaything of the prince. Jed growled, catching himself on his wings and climbing, wheeling above the warehouse district./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The fires were a dead giveaway. Even from far above he could see their burning trashcans, their smoke pluming thick and black into the damp night air. The gathering was in an open-topped structure, some kind of loading bay, a crowd of people with loud music./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"It looked like some kind of rave. Jed landed on a roof nearby, scowling down at the assembled, and phoned /"Just looks like a party to me."br /Jack grunted. "Olivia said she had a funny feeling about it. Can you get any closer?"br /Jed paused, considering. The open roof of the structure didn't afford him much concealment, but his dark skin offered him good camouflage against the night sky. "I can try."br /"Well, go on then." The call terminated with a /Jed sighed, tucking his phone into his pocket before launching himself airborne once more./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"He landed on the near wall, on the tip of an archway, about twenty feet up, silent as an owlbr /The party was about fifty strong, assembled in a circle facing inwards towards a central figure, who was seated, heavy-duty headphones over his ears, a woodwind instrument at his lips. They were kindred, he was pretty sure of it. It was the way they stood without swaying, the worn look of their clothes. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Sabbat?/em Jed pulled out his phone again, snapping a picture and sending it to Jack. A couple of the assembled kindred looked up curiously, and Jed took off into the air again. Too late, he saw the great batlike shapes overhead, milky pale against the black sky. Other gargoyles? In Grimouth? Still camouflaged, Jed swooped down to meet Jack a few streets /"They have fliers," he said quietly. "I'm going to try and lure them down."br /Jack nodded. "I've got your back, mate."/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"With a downbeat of his powerful wings, Jed was airborne again. As he neared the pale flying figures, he could see that they were not as twisted as true gargoyles should be, their forms gracile and slender, their faces untwisted by the Curse. Puzzled, he dropped his camouflage and approached them, his hands open./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Moving as if one, they saw him, their heads turning hair-trigger fast. Jed barely had time to strafe sideways as the first creature swept past him, missing him by a hair. He pulled into a dive as the second shot past him, snatching for his wings, and he was perhaps thirty feet from the ground as the third pale winged creature pulled level with him and grabbed him in a tight embrace, folding its wings against its body. Its weight was too great for Jed to support, and his wings flapped frantically as he kicked at the creature, and they plummeted to the ground, his nostrils thick with the scent of rotting meat./p 


	50. Chapter 50

p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"SHEN/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Shen thanked the ghoul who took his coat as he stepped into the chantry, heading for his regnant's office. Lucius was there, peering over his glasses as he worked at his computer. Shen stood at the door, head bowed, and after a moment Lucius acknowledged him with a glance, turning off his screen. "Evening, Shen."br /Shen stepped inside, and sank into one of the armchairs."Victor accepted your offer."br /Lucius nodded, seeming unsurprised. "Yes, I expected as much."br /"What did you offer him, exactly?"br /Lucius looked troubled. "It'd be better for everyone if we waited for everything to be in place before those details became public. Where's Olivia?"br /Shen frowned. "I don't know. She wouldn't tell me. Went to ground with a couple of guys."br /"She would be safe if she frenzied?" asked /Shen considered this. Two ghouls were usually more than enough to restrain Olivia. "I guess so. Why?"br /"Dante's in a meeting with the other primogen right now. He's in a little trouble. If he lost it, it might be… hard for the other Malkavians."br /"Well, she was being especially paranoid tonight," said Shen. "I guess that explains it."/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JED/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The curling tentacles of blackness caught Jed before he hit the ground. They grasped him like a toy, winding around each of his limbs and pushing the air from his chest, before pinning him to a wall, cruciform, his head towards the ground. Dimly, he was aware of the pale shape of the bat-winged man flying up and away from him. A ghoul? With flight?/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jed's eyes widened as he recognized the figure at the center of the circle. A young man, with dark hair and soulful eyes. A redlister. Sabbat. Archbishop. The black tentacles righted him, and he stumbled to his knees. Two of the other kindred were at his shoulders, hauling him /"I can walk," he croaked. They stopped. The archbishop lowered the headphones from his ears, and waved them back, his eyes intent on /A growing feeling of trepidation in his gut, Jed walked towards the archbishop. "Your grace?"br /A slight inclinationof the head told him he had chosen the correct form of address. The archbishop smiled, his lips thin, and his eyes met Jed's./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Then blackness, and static./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JACK/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jack slipped through the streets like a shadow, the howls of the sabbat pack echoing in the corners of his mind. No man sane would go alone against fifty sabbat, but he knew where he might get some help. The Prince's tower, where she lived with the sheriff, loomed large at the far end of the high street, a vision in golden light. He cleared his throat as he approached, and the doormen let him through. In the foyer, another ghoul, some sort of butler, looked at him /"I'd like to speak with Isaac please," said /"I'm afraid he's not here. He's in an important meeting," said the butler. "Won't be back for the rest of the night."br /Jack swore. "And your Mistress?"br /"Is similarly occupied." The butler bowed apologetically, and Jack left, heading back to the docks, alone./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"OLIVIA/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Olivia's phone flashed; a message from Cain, of all people. Olivia flipped her phone open, reading his missive./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Dante is currently busy in a meeting with the primogen/em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Busy for the rest of the night, then. And in trouble. Olivia lay back on the concrete floor, clothes wet and icy cold against her skin. What could Dante have done to get in that much trouble?/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"JED/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Jed was walking the streets when Jack caught sight of him, his wings folded against his back and his eyes strangely blank. With a burst of speed, Jack caught up with him and walked alongside /"You gone crazy, mate?" Jack asked. "You're walking on the streets. That's a masquerade breach, right there."br /Jed looked at him, confused. "I need to walk outwards in a spiral pattern."br /Jack nodded. "Uhuh. Sure you do. You've been dominated, mate. I'm going to need you to stop."br /Jed blinked. "But I need to-"br /With a sigh, Jack caught hold of the back of Jed's head and smashed it into the pavement. "Sorry," he said, repeating the action. "But this is for your own good." Jack sat heavily on Jed's chest as he pulled his phone from his /"Yo, Shen," he called. "Jed's been hurt, can you send a van?" He hung up, and looked down at Jed a moment before opening his own wrist with his fangs and feeding the struggling gargoyle a few drops of his blood./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"OLIVIA/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"The fuzz of the amplifiers faded, and Olivia was dimly aware of the sound of a flute, a single, soaring melody./p 


	51. Chapter 51

p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"It was dusk the next night when Olivia woke, her clothes still damp. She pushed off the tarpaulin that one of the ghouls had draped over her, and switched on her phone. Another message from Cain; this one a mass transmission/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Kindred,/embr /em style="border: none; color: inherit;"I regret to inform you that Samuel has resigned his position due to behaviour unbefitting of a primogen and endangerment of the Masquerade/em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Samuel? Olivia sat up, frowning at her phone. Cain had made it sound like Dante was the one in trouble last night. What had changed?br /With a sigh, she tapped in Dante's number./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;""You got time for me tonight?"br /Dante hesitated. "For you? A little. Where would you like to meet?"br /"Somewhere we won't be overheard."br /Dante paused a moment, and Olivia heard a soft riffling; a rolodex? "I have a place," said Dante, reading the name of a pub on the north side of the city, near the /Olivia scribbled down the address and ended the call./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"She fixed her hair as best she could, but the clothes were a lost cause; still damp from the rain and now rumpled from her day of sleeping on the floor, most of her skirt and blouse covered in a fine coating of grey dust. She brushed herself down, getting the worst of it, but still looking unkempt. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"People will think I look crazy/em, she thought as one of her guards, the dark rings of a new parent under his eyes, held the passenger door of the car open for her./p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"em style="border: none; color: inherit;"Too bad I really am./em/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"Dante was waiting for her at the bar, a pint of guinness sat staunchly in front of him. At least, he looked superficially like Dante. The same eyes, the same nose, the same slightly infuriating aura of smugness; these were all present. But the primogen's red hair was a muted brown, his strange black-and-white suit rendered and indeterminate blue-grey. He raised a hand in greeting, picking up his drink as he stood and stalked towards /"I've got a room for us in the back."/p  
p style="font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, 'Bitstream Charter', serif;"They sat side-by-side at a small table in a room marked "for private functions only". The single tiny window might once have looked out onto the rolling expanse of Darkmoor, but now it looked out onto the carpark, overshadowed by the industrial /Dante smiled companionably, still brown-haired and unremarkable. "So, Olivia, what seems to be the problem?"br /"I -uh-" Olivia laid her hands on the table, palm down. It was sticky. "I'm afraid I've been method-acting the fool," she /Dante looked sympathetic. "Oh?"br /em style="border: none; color: inherit;"I cared too much about Balrus. I acted too rashly in making a deal for his life. I'm in over my head with Eyes. And Dante probably knows all that already./em Olivia swallowed. "I'm leveraged too much. I didn't think Eyes would make a deal in bad faith, but she did. She set me up to fail. There's no way I could have succeeded at what she wanted, unless what she wanted was for Victor to have to brush my ash off his jacket."br /Dante seemed to consider this, raising his glass to his lips. "She's ridden on the coat-tails of others before," he said. "It's not beyond the realms of possibility."br /"Honestly, I'm more worried about what she's going to ask me instead. Some kind of atrocity, or something, I don't know." Olivia looked down. "I'm worried that she will leverage me into dragging you into this, too."br /"I have the means to cancel your debt with Eyes," said Dante. "But I couldn't do so without appearing to favour you over the rest of the malks." em style="border: none; color: inherit;"And he has to at least not appear to play favourites,/em Olivia realised. em style="border: none; color: inherit;"If he wants to keep the peace. /emStill, she felt grateful to him for even considering the /"What about the Luna favour?" she /Dante looked thoughtful. "That would balance it, yes."br /Olivia tilted her head. She got the feeling that Dante was leaving some things unsaid. "What would you advise?"br /"Talk to Eyes. She'll let you in without payment, now that you've paid her first price-" Did everyone know about her deal with the prince? Or had Dante set it up in the first place? She wouldn't put it past him. Dante set down his drink. "And hear her out. Find out what her request is."br /"You don't think she's found another buyer?"br /Dante shook his head. "No."br /"What if she wants something awful, like for me to kill someone, and she says she'll kill me if I don't?" Olivia found herself /"Olivia," Dante smiled a little. "I doubt you em style="border: none; color: inherit;"could/em kill anyone. And she's very unlikely to kill you; she knows that would rouse my ire."br /"Well thanks," said Olivia, taking care to hide the gratitude and affection that welled up at those words. She met his eyes, briefly. "I care about you too, Dante."br /Dante showed no emotion, but inclined his head. "I have a tendency to become, let's say, em style="border: none; color: inherit;"impassioned/em on matters of clan. But no," he sighed. "She is more likely to ask for one of the assets that you hold. Alice, the werewolves, or a member of your coterie. I trust that you know what order they come in."br /Olivia felt a spark of rebellion at his implication. "Dante," she said. "Shen is my em style="border: none; color: inherit;"friend/em."br /"And with his sire's entry into the chantry, his worth to the camarilla decreases markedly," said Dante. "You should consider this."br /Anger fluttering like a trapped bird in her chest, Olivia bit her tongue and looked away. "We'll see," she said, and Dante seemed unconcerned by her recalcitrance. She changed the subject. "What happened last night? Cain said Samuel resigned."br /"I was seeking a way to free Alice of her blood bond to Jack," said Dante shortly. "Things did not go as I had wished."br /"With Samuel?" Olivia mused. "But you two were such good friends."br /Dante made a scoffing noise, and for a moment he raised his mask of normalcy. Under it, he was red-haired, black-and-white suited Dante, but over his left eye was an ugly wound, open from his brow to his cheek. It looked like a claw-mark, the flesh either side swollen and incarnadine. Olivia reached for her own eye involuntarily, and Dante raised his mask /Olivia swallowed. "That looks painful."br /Dante waved a hand. "I could heal it away any time I wanted, of course," he smirked "But I find it is much easier to play the poor, piteous victim with a scratch or two to back up my story."br /"Well, I can't say I've ever had a problem with piteous," said Olivia /Dante's lips seemed to twitch. "I'm sure," he said. "By the way, if you happen to see Jed, tell him he needs to stop making ghouls."/p 


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